MOSELLE, MS (WDAM) - Jones County residents are remembering a local Vietnam War hero in a special way.

Saturday, a monument honoring the late Marine Lance Corporal Roy Wheat was unveiled at the new Moselle Fire Station.

Wheat, who was from Moselle, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously after he was killed in Vietnam in 1967.

He died when he threw his body on top of a land mine. His action saved the lives of other Marines.

The monument was donated by the Moselle Neighborhood Watch organization.

"Everybody knows how Roy was, that he would help anybody," said Luther Donald, president of the Moselle Neighborhood Watch organization. "And when he did all of this, he gave his life for his country, that was the best thing in the world he could have done, and he knows that."

"The people of the community know him and this is a monument that they can come and look at, so we're just so happy that the fire department and everyone that was involved took the time to do this," said Danielle Benoit, Roy Wheat's niece.